Brazil will stop huge development projects in the Amazon basin and turn instead to smaller-scale efforts which are less harmful to the environment, President Itamar Franco announced recently.
Franco’s policy met with immediate opposition from leaders in Amazon states, who called for more mining and forestry, Associated Press reports. Franco’s new policy
a consequence of economic recession is his first regarding long-term Amazon development that takes environmental protection into account. The Amazon basin accounts for 57% of Brazil.
The “era of mega-development projects is a thing of the past,” Franco declared at the first meeting of the National Amazon Council. The council, which will monitor development in the region, includes Rubens Ricupero, minister of the environment and the Amazon, and the governors of seven jungle states.
Environmentalists have attacked Brazil for spending huge sums on hydroelectric dams, bridges and roads that destroyed the rainforest, then fell into disrepair when federal funding dried up in the 1980s. Amazonas state governor Gilberto Mestrinho, demanded the government legalize gold mining throughout the region. About 400,000 prospectors are illegally mining for gold, diamonds and other minerals in the Amazon.
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